ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001353 STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM NSC FOR NEA STAFF SECDEF WASHDC FOR USDP/ASD-PA/ASD-ISA HQ USAF FOR XOXX DA WASHDC FOR SASA JOINT STAFF WASHDC FOR PA CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL FOR POLAD/USIA ADVISOR COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE FOR PAO/POLAD COMSIXTHFLT FOR 019 JERUSALEM ALSO ICD LONDON ALSO FOR HKANONA AND POL PARIS ALSO FOR POL ROME FOR MFO SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION -------------- SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: -------------- ¶1. Mideast ¶2. Iran -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- Leading media quoted PM Benjamin Netanyahu as saying yesterday in Rome that he would not rule out the renewal of Egyptian-brokered negotiations with Hamas in an attempt to secure the release of Gilad Shalit. Netanyahu denied Arab media reports that Shalit would be transferred to Egypt in the coming days and said that "I cannot confirm that I heard such information and if such a thing was about to happen, I would be informed about it." The reports claimed that the abducted soldier would be transferred from the Gaza Strip, where he has been held for nearly three years, to Egypt "within the hour." Yediot quoted Egyptian sources as saying that they have received a sign of life from Shalit. Leading media reported that yesterday Israel released Aziz Dweik, the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, from prison, ending his three-year incarceration. Dweik, who is considered a relatively moderate Hamas leader in the West Bank, was one of several Palestinian leaders arrested after the June 2006 abduction of Shalit. HaQaretz reported that Qrecent weeks have seen a dramatic change in Israel's roadblock policy in the West BankQ: Right under the nose of NetanyahuQs right-wing government, the IDF has lifted some of the main, permanent roadblocks, which have played a central role in restricting the movement of Palestinians, mostly between the main Palestinian cities. HaQaretz noted that the decision of the defense establishment to ease Palestinian travel very much reflects the steps the PA security forces have taken against the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank. According to HaQaretz, American pressure and demands that the Palestinians be allowed to move freely in areas where there is no security risk are also a factor. HaQaretz reported that an Israeli government source has told the newspaper that Israel is considering enacting a temporary freeze on settlement construction, excluding projects already underway, if the U.S. agrees to continued construction for natural growth once the freeze ends. The GOI official was quoted as saying that U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell has been conducting low-profile talks with Israel in a bid to reach an agreement on the settlement issue. HaQaretz quoted the source as saying that Mitchell was due to meet with Netanyahu in Paris on Friday, but that Netanyahu postponed the meeting and sent DM Ehud Barak to Washington for talks. (Yediot reported that Mitchell was the one who canceled the meeting and that, in a Washington meting with Netanyahu envoy Yitzhak Molcho, the Americans clarified that there is no purpose in meeting as long as Israel does not freeze settlement construction.) The government official was quoted as saying that Barak believes that any progress on either the Palestinian or the regional peace tracks will render the settlement issue considerably less important. Electronic media quoted sources close to the PM as saying that the meeting was canceled at NetanyahuQs request: Before his departure for Europe, Netanyahu convened a meeting in which it was decided to postpone the meeting until clarifications could be reached on several issues between Jerusalem and Washington. IDF Radio reported that the spokesman for the State Department explained the postponement by saying that the U.S. administration wanted Mitchell to meet Defense Minister Ehud Barak first. The Jerusalem Post quoted diplomatic officials as saying that Israel and the U.S. are continuing to negotiate the parameters of a settlement construction freeze. The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch (Yisrael Beiteinu) visited the Temple Mount, drawing condemnations from Arab Knesset members and the Waqf Islamic trust, who labeled the tour a Qprovocation. Electronic media reported that President Obama has given instructions to reinstate the U.S. Ambassador to Damascus. Leading media reported that Obama has appointed Sam Kaplan, a Jew and a supporter of the President, as Ambassador to Morocco. Leading media reported that Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi told Netanyahu that he supports the concept of a demilitarized Palestinian state. Israel Hayom reported that President Shimon Peres used a particularly gross expression to depict the Iranian regime. Leading media reported that President Obama and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed outrage over the violent repression of riots in Iran Q according to Yediot, Qtoo little and too late.Q Major media reported that several dozen Israeli Jews of Iranian origin held a mourning vigil yesterday next to the American Embassy in Tel Aviv. Maariv quoted former Mossad station chief in Tehran Eliezer Tzafrir as saying that the Shah had asked the Israeli spying organization to assassinate the Ayatollah Khomeini. The Jerusalem Post reported that a deal is close to completion for the purchase of the F-35 stealth fighter jet after the Defense Ministry and the Pentagon recently reached understandings on a number of IAF demands to integrate Israeli technology into the plane. The apparent breakthrough was made following a series of visits to Washington recently by senior Israel defense officials and DM Barak. HaQaretz reported that the Jewish Agency is set to nominate former cabinet minster Natan Sharansky as its new chairman. He is NetanyahuQs candidate for the post. However, a Jewish Agency committee passed controversial reforms that strip the Israeli PM of the power to recommend its chairman. The reform will not apply to SharanskyQs appointment. -------------- ¶1. Mideast: -------------- Block Quotes: -------------- "To Your Attention, Netanyahu" Liberal columnist Gideon Samet, a former consul in Philadelphia, wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv (6/24): QThis awful chaos in Iran, the flames of hatred and repression, the regime police that kills in the streets, and the isolation of a pariah state -- represent the most common kind of war in the world today: lethal domestic, not external, conflicts. IsraelQs situation belongs to this type.... This must be restated: Israel is also being drawn into the fire because of Arab terrorism and rejectionism. But it is far from doing what it should to get off that cursed list. This is a bitter lesson from Tehran. Looking at pictures from the territories and Wadi Ara [an Israeli-Arab area], you can see Iran. It sometimes is difficult to believe in the existence of a connection between the atmosphere of violence in Israel and that of the darkest countries.... Benjamin Netanyahu is not doing what is needed for his country. Barak Obama has also done too little so far. If he does not demand that Israel and the Palestinians present their concessions without delay, weQll repeatedly look like Iran -- on the sidelines of history, far from the national dream, in a kind of war in which only the worst states are still trapped. -------------- ¶2. Iran: -------------- Block Quotes: -------------- "The Time of the Revolutionary Guards" Former Mossad Director Ephraim Halevy wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (6/24): QA lot now depends on the behavior of the players on the [Iranian] scene. Will the freedom lovers (the reformists) resume the protests after a short lull? If the Revolutionary Guard engages in a bloody fight with them, how will Iran look the next day? Will the reformists carry Moussavi to victory? Will he be arrested or killed? Will Khamenei use more force until the bitter end? Until the bitter end? The only thing we can do is hope for the best -- the uprooting of the current regime -- or watch a worse development: IranQs takeover by the Revolutionary Guard. CUNNINGHAM